Nick Turok

MIAMI, FL—In game two of a three-game set, the Marlins pitchers performed well against one of the best offenses in the league. Saturday's game saw the whole Marlins pitching staff shut down the Braves and the hitters were there to back them up, scoring five runs against Chris Sale with huge hits from Josh Bell and Bryan De La Cruz. Max Meyer was on the mound—making his fifth career start—and he was outstanding against a Braves offense that is top five among MLB teams in almost every hitting category. Meyer looked good in his previous starts this year, but on Saturday afternoon, he raised the bar even higher (6.0 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 7 K). His swing-and-miss stuff was better than it's ever been and he was able to generate 23 whiffs in six innings. The standout pitch for Meyer was his changeup. In an at-bat vs. Jarred Kelenic, he threw three straight changeups and got Kelenic swinging at all three for the strikeout. "The mind works," manager Skip Schumaker said about Meyer. "He is navigating the game as good as anyone we have in the clubhouse, which says a lot with four starts in his whole big league career." The Marlins came out the gates aggressive against seven-time All-Star Chris Sale. Josh Bell started it off by blasting a solo home run to left field in the bottom of the first inning. Bell on facing Sale: "I was trying to pull him the last time I faced him in Boston last year and his heater got to me a little bit, wasn't able to barrel it in the air. So I changed the approach today and it worked out." With runners on the corners in the second inning, Vidal Bruján lined a ball to left field that went just off the glove of Kelenic. It was Bruján's first base hit and RBI of the season to put the Marlins up 2-0. Sale would then lock in and shut the Marlins down in the middle innings. He would need just 20 pitches to get through the third and fourth innings while allowing zero baserunners. However, Miami's offense broke through again in the fifth. After two straight walks, the bases were loaded for Bryan De La Cruz, who smoked a line drive down the line for a bases-clearing double to put the Marlins up 5-0. The Braves would get a run back in the sixth inning on a fielder's choice by Marcell Ozuna, but after that, the Marlins bullpen shut them down. Schumaker went to Calvin Faucher (called up from Triple-A Jacksonville prior to the game), Anthony Bender, and Tanner Scott to close out this one and give the Marlins a 5-1 win and their first home win of the year. A big story for Marlins pitching this year has been walks. They have been hurt by them in almost every single loss, but they allowed none in nine innings on Saturday. The series finale is set for 1:40 p.m. EST on Sunday. Jesús Luzardo will be on the mound for the Marlins. The Braves will send out Charlie Morton.

Still looking for their first win of the season, the Marlins went righty-heavy to try and produce some runs off of 32-year-old Cardinals veteran Steven Matz. The Marlins have been unable to hold leads late in games so far this season. However, they never even held a lead on Saturday. The Marlins pitching staff was able to keep the Cardinals in check for the majority of the game, but with no production from the bats, they ultimately fell 3-1. Through the first four innings, the Marlins went 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position and it didn't get much better after that. They were shut out for the first seven innings of this game, which made it 10 straight innings without a run going back to Thursday's game. Trevor Rogers was on the mound for the Marlins in his second start of the season and this game showed flashes of improvement from his first start. Rogers had a good slider going and he was able to use it to get some big outs early in the game. However, the changeup was knocked around a bit, responsible for three of the five hits he gave up. Rogers exited after the fifth with his final line being 5 IP, 5 H, 3 R (2 ER), 3 BB, 3 SO. Saturday was the debut of new Marlin Emmanuel Rivera and it was a positive day for him as he was able to get on base twice. His first at-bat was an 11-pitch battle against Matz that ended in a walk. He also notched his first hit in the fifth inning. S3d4V2pfVjBZQUhRPT1fVkZSWVZsSlFWbE1BV2xNRVZBQUFBZ05YQUFNQ1ZsVUFDMU5YVVZjTlVGZFRVd3NB.mp4.04a6c1bb67652cedbe20ee3418c45435.mp4 There was a lot of traffic on the base paths for both teams in the early innings, but clutch two-out pitching from both Matz and Rogers would keep this game tied at zero. In the first three-and-a-half innings, the Marlins and Cardinals combined for six runners left on base. Jordan Walker would finally get the scoring started in the bottom of the fourth by hustling out the box to stretch a possible single into an RBI double. Rogers would then do himself no favors as he tried to pickoff a runner at first, but the throw got away from Jake Burger allowing a second Cardinal run. The Cardinals had a big chance to blow this game out of the water in the sixth inning after back-to-back singles and a walk loaded the bases for Paul Goldschmidt. Bryan Hoeing was on the mound trying to keep the game close and he was able to get Goldschmidt to roll over on a first-pitch sinker. Hoeing typically is a long reliever, but in this case, he was only used for one inning. When asked about this role switch, manager Skip Schumaker said, "I don't know. We are trying to figure it out, honestly. He's done a nice job in the length role, but we are trying to figure out how to hold games and close games out." The Marlins' lone run came in the eighth with a double from Luis Arraez that was followed by Josh Bell's hard line drive into right-center field to drive him in. St. Louis closer Ryan Helsley came in for the ninth to seal the deal and leave the Marlins as the only winless team in baseball. The Marlins will now look to avoid another sweep Sunday vs. the Cardinals. Max Meyer will get the ball for the Marlins and he is facing off against Kyle Gibson with first pitch set for 2:15 EST.

After getting swept by the Rays, the Marlins swam into Nationals Park for a must-win series. Their offense had been held scoreless in 16 straight innings entering Thursday night, but the Fish came out firing en route to a 6-1 win. The Marlins got on the board right away. After back-to-back singles from Luis Arraez and Josh Bell in the first inning, Bryan De La Cruz came up and drilled a double to left field to make it 1-0. This was a huge burst of energy for the Marlins and would be the start of a great offensive day. In the second and the third, the Marlins would put runners on second but couldn't bring them home. They came right back in the fourth with back-to-back singles to start the inning. Nick Fortes would then walk to load the bases. This would put the Marlins in a great spot with Arraez up and one out. Arraez got the job done—despite hitting into a 4-6-5 double play, he got a run home on the play to extend the lead, which is all that matters. Josh Bell started off the fifth inning with his second hit of the game (he would go on to finish 3-for-5). Jake Burger was then plunked on the elbow, which put runners on first and second. One swing of the bat from Jazz Chisholm Jr. broke the game open right there. He blasted his 14th home run of the year into the Nationals bullpen in right field to put the Marlins up 5-0, all of those runs charged to Joan Adon who silenced these same players the week before. Braxton Garrett continued his great season with what was a fantastic outing from the 26-year-old starter. Garrett gave up just three hits in six innings while allowing one run. He threw just 73 pitches but was taken out before the 7th to preserve his arm as he has never thrown this many innings before. In Garrett’s previous three seasons with the Marlins, he threw 129.2 total major league innings. With a full month remaining in the 2023 season, he has already thrown 140 innings. https://mlb-cuts-diamond.mlb.com/FORGE/2023/2023-08/31/df7d5777-9416278a-48d6e4cf-csvm-diamondx64-asset_1280x720_59_16000K.mp4Garrett has been arguably the most consistent pitcher in the Marlins rotation. Who knows where this team would be without him. The Marlins have gone 19-7 in games that he has started this year (compared 48-60 in all other games) Jake Burger would provide an extra bit of insurance in the top of the ninth with his third home run as a Marlin. This home run was a big relief as he was in a lot of pain after getting hit by a pitch earlier in the game. After a tough series against Tampa Bay, this is exactly what the Marlins needed to do in game one of this series. They were able to drive runners in and the pitching did exactly what they needed to do. Miami now leads the season series 8-2 over the Nats while rebounding to the .500 mark overall. What’s NextEury Pérez is on the mound for the Marlins on Friday and he is taking on Jake Irvin. This is déjà vu as these two met in Miami just six days ago and they both had good outings. The game is set for 7:05 ET. Photo by Greg Fiume/Getty Images

Before the game even began on Tuesday night, there was already a memorable moment as former Astro Yuli Gurriel received his World Series ring from the previous year. After Gurriel got his ring, it was time for baseball and this game had a little bit of everything. The Marlins took control early, but the Astros just kept coming back, and after some weird plays and some clutch home runs, it was a tough 6-5 loss for the Marlins. The Marlins got their offense going first by scoring three total runs in the second and third innings. Jazz Chisholm started it off with a leadoff triple in the second and on this triple he went from home to third in a blazing 11.44 seconds. Bryan De La Cruz drove him in. Then with a runner on in the third Jorge Soler blasted his 30th home run of the season to put the Marlins up 3-0. This is now the second time in Soler’s career that he has hit 30-plus home runs. He's on pace to join Giancarlo Stanton and Gary Sheffield as the only Marlins hitters to reach 40. Soler said postgame that "mostly staying healthy was the main goal" entering the season. "I think in an interview earlier this season, I told you guys it was going to be a lot of home runs," he continued. The excitement of Soler’s home run was short lived as the Astros got those two runs right back in the top of the fourth. Yordan Alvarez started the inning with a double and Yainer Diaz followed him by crushing his 16th home run of the year. Chisholm would continue having a good day at the plate with a single in the fourth and he would then steal second to put himself into scoring position. Then Jesús Sánchez lined a single to right field to bring home Chisholm and put the Marlins up 4-2. The Astros would again fire right back in the top of the fifth. With one run already on the board in the fifth and one man on base Kyle Tucker came up and hit a fly ball to left center field that was set up to be an out, but De La Cruz and Chisholm collided and neither came up with the ball and it allowed the tying run to score. "Probably both didn't hear each other, going hard trying to make a play for our pitcher. You know, it happens." Chisholm said postgame about the play. The Marlins would take the lead right back in the bottom of the fifth. With two outs and a runner on first Josh Bell grounded a ball to second which looked to be a routine play, but the throw to first was low and the ball bounced off Jon Singleton’s glove. It was picked up by Cristian Javier who tried to throw Joey Wendle out at third, but the throw was wide allowing Wendle to score all the way from first. This put the Marlins up 5-4. This ended Cristian Javier’s day and he was not great today as he gave up six hits to the Marlins and gave up four earned runs. The Marlins were able to hit the ball hard and find holes. Only six of Javier's 95 pitches resulted in swinging strikes. This lead was short-lived as Chas McCormick drilled a home run just over the right field wall to tie the game at 5-5. This knocked Johnny Cueto out of the game. Cueto pitched well in spurts, but like his recent starts, he couldn’t escape the long ball. He exited with a final line of 5.1 IP, 7 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, 2 HR. Cueto talked postgame about his performance: "All I have to do is minimize the home run and just keep going out there, try to compete and help the team." The Astros took their first lead of the game in the top of the eighth inning because of a solo shot from Kyle Tucker, his 23rd of the season. He's only the second lefty batter to take A.J. Puk deep this year (the other being Matt Olson of the Braves). That home run would prove to be the dagger as the Marlins were unable to score in the final four innings of the game. They had the potential tying run in scoring position after Sánchez's ninth-inning double, but Avisaíl García and Joey Wendle both struck out against Ryan Pressly to end it. "I think that we just got burned by the long ball tonight against a really good team that slugs," manager Skip Schumaker said. Looking AheadThe Marlins will take on the Astros in the series finale Wednesday night with both teams looking to secure a series win. On the mound for the Marlins is Jesús Luzardo, who is looking to bounce back after a rough start against the Yankees. On the mound for the Astros is Justin Verlander. It'll be his third start since being traded back to Houston at the deadline. José Altuve's availability is unclear after he exited early with a left knee contusion. First pitch is set for 6:40 EST.

At this point of the year, every game matters and for the Marlins and the Yankees, that was especially true heading into Saturday's game with both teams currently on the outside looking in at their league's playoff race. With their ace Sandy Alcantara on the mound, the Marlins came into this game looking to tie the series at one game apiece and Alcantara did not disappoint. Alcantara looked like Cy Young Sandy on Saturday. He shut down the Yankees lineup all afternoon en route to his third complete game of the year and 12th of his career. https://mlb-cuts-diamond.mlb.com/FORGE/2023/2023-08/12/28bcc36b-7e52fac7-29bf1386-csvm-diamondx64-asset_1280x720_59_16000K.mp4Alcantara had all of his pitches going today and went through the Yankee lineup with almost no trouble at all. He worked efficiently and after the sixth inning, he was at only 67 pitches. The Marlins defense was a big help to him. Joey Wendle and Jake Burger both made some nice plays at shortstop and third, respectively. The highlight of the day was from Yuli Gurriel in the top of the seventh. A pop fly was hit in foul territory down the first base side and Yuli tracked it all the way down and jumped up against the netting to make the play. The Yankees got something going with a one-out walk from Billy McKinney (McKinney's plate appearance would have ended with a strikeout if not for a missed strike three call by umpire Angel Hernandez). Alcantara would then balk, which sent McKinney to second. This was the third balk by Marlins pitchers in these first two games against the Yankees. Isiah Kiner-Falefa singled to drive McKinney in for the Yankees' only run of the game. There was a thought Alcantara may not go the distance after that extended seventh inning, but he rallied back and struck out the side in the eighth which gave manager Skip Schumaker the confidence to send him back out for the ninth. “I just want to strike out everybody over there.” Alcantara said postgame when asked about setting a season high in strikeouts. Sandy ended his day with a final line of 9 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 10 K. “It was a really impressive outing at a time where our team needed it the most.” Schumaker said about Alcantara’s start. Luis Arraez was placed in the three-hole for Saturday's game and in his first at-bat, he showed three-hole power by hitting the farthest home run of his career to put the Marlins up 2-0. This home run was blasted 409 feet over the right field wall and Arraez took his time to admire the work he had just done by standing at home plate to watch it fly over the fence. The Marlins pushed to get more in the first with back-to-back singles by Jake Burger and Jesús Sánchez, but a Yuli Gurriel groundout would end the inning. Both teams would stay quite up until the bottom of the fourth where Burger and Sánchez would both get on base for the second time this game. Then with one out, Joey Wendle would drive in Burger with a sharp single to left-center field. At 2 hours and three minutes, this was among the quickest Marlins games of the season and it was witnessed by a near-sellout crowd. Looking AheadThe Marlins will look to win the series on Sunday in what is set to be a pitcher's duel. For the Marlins, it is the young star Eury Pérez and for the Yankees, it is the veteran star Gerrit Cole, who is in contention to win his first Cy Young award this year. First pitch is set for 1:40 ET. Photo by Jesus Sanchez/Fish On First

The Marlins came into the finale of this four-game set vs. the Phillies with the Phillies ahead of them by half a game in the standings, making this a crucial game for both teams. The pitchers showed out on Thursday with Johnny Cueto on the mound for the Marlins and newly acquired Michael Lorenzen pitching for the Phillies for the first time. Nick Castellanos would get the Phillies offense started with a walk to leadoff the second. Just one batter later, J.T. Realmuto would barrel up a hanging slider from Cueto and send it over the fence in right field to put the Phillies up 2-0. This was Realmuto’s 13th home run of the year and his second this year versus the Marlins. The Marlins would get a run back in the bottom of the fourth that started with an eight-pitch walk from Josh Bell. Jazz Chisholm Jr. followed right behind him and drilled a double into the left-center field gap that sent Bell into high gear to score all the way from first. This hit extended Chisholm's hitting streak to 11 games, which ties his career high. Cueto had another very strong outing today that saw him go 6 strong innings while throwing 100 pitches. In Thursday's game, he largely benefited from two well-turned double plays by newly acquired players Josh Bell and Jake Burger. These double plays helped Cueto keep him efficient—he was at 52 pitches through three, but at the end of six, he was at 83. https://sporty-clips.mlb.com/2bb7ef83-9458-43e1-b40b-73b496c750ea.mp4https://sporty-clips.mlb.com/d156842b-dff7-4257-bf88-c42037bd3ad2.mp4"A lot of guys down after a long game yesterday and just the bullpen usage of late, so with a 13-game stretch [without any off days], we needed innings and he did great," manager Skip Schumaker said postgame. Cueto came out for the seventh, but was unable to get an out. The trouble started with a leadoff single from Bryce Harper followed by a bloop single from Castellanos. With two runners on, Bryson Scott battled against Cueto and ended up with a nine-pitch walk to load the bases. Schumaker called on A.J. Puk to face J.T. Realmuto and limit the damage. Puk got Realmuto to ground out, but Brandon Marsh was the next batter, and he poked a ground ball through the right side of the infield to score two and put the Phillies up 4-1. Bryan De La Cruz brought one of those runs back in the bottom of the seventh with his 15th homer of the year. But for the most part, Michael Lorenzen shined in his Phillies debut. He pitched eight innings—the second-longest start of his career—allowing just two runs on six hits. The Phillies couldn't have asked for much more. Devin Smeltzer was called back up from the minors prior to Thursday's game and the veteran lefty made his first major league appearance since May 3. He made an impact by striking out five Phillies over two scoreless innings to keep the game within reach. Seranthony Dominguez came in for the ninth to close the game out. After allowing a leadoff single to Chisholm, he did just that. Cueto was asked about what can be taken way from this series: "We understand the importance of the series. They won the series, but there's plenty of games coming ahead and we gotta continue winning and just keep battling." Other notes Cueto has completed six innings in all three of his starts since rejoining the Marlins rotation.Joey Wendle is on an 0-for-28 stretch.Looking Ahead The Marlins travel to Texas for a three-game series against the Rangers starting Friday night. Jesús Luzardo will get the ball in game one for the Marlins, and for the Rangers, it will be Jordan Montgomery's debut for the team. First pitch is set for 8:05 EST.

One day in advance of the MLB trade deadline, the Marlins lineup picked up an important addition. Center fielder Jazz Chisholm Jr was reinstated from the IL and hit cleanup in his first game back. He joined the team before a crucial series versus the Phillies, who trailed the Marlins by half a game in the standings entering play on Monday. But before Chisholm could even step to the plate, the Marlins had already put up two runs. Luis Arraez started the first inning with a single to right and Soler followed him by blasting his 25th home run of the year into the left field bleachers. In Chisholm's first at-bat since July 2, he lined a ground-rule double over the wall in right field. On the mound for the Marlins was Edward Cabrera and it was a short start for him. Cabrera struggled finding the strike zone with all his pitches and ended the day with a 48% strike rate. His lack of control would lead to him surrendering six walks in three innings pitched. After allowing the first two men to reach base in the top of the fourth, manager Skip Schumaker went to his bullpen earlier than he would have liked in this one. Manager Skip Schumaker on Cabrera's performance: "It's frustrating because Edward Cabrera got such good stuff, probably the best stuff on the staff." Steven Okert would come in to try and clean up, but after a fantastic sacrifice bunt from Jake Cave and a double from Johan Rojas, the Phillies would tie the game at 2-2. Both the runs were charged to Cabrera, whose final line would be 3 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 6 BB, 3 K. Cabrera was not the only one to surrender walks as the Marlins pitching staff combined to walk ten batters. With all those baserunners, it's really hard to prevent runs. Schumaker said, "We've been preaching since spring training, throw strikes and we'll see what happens, and 10 walks, it's tough to win that way." Tanner Scott came in to pitch the seventh inning for the Marlins and after walking the first batter, Alec Bohm crushed a double off the right field wall that put runners on second and third. After intentionally walking J.T Realmuto, Bryson Scott hit a sacrifice fly to put the Phillies ahead 3-2. Taijuan Walker was on the mound for the Phillies, and he was fantastic. The first inning was his only blemish. Other than that, he saw no real trouble for the rest of the game. He was taken out in the seventh inning and his final line was 6.2 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 4 K. The Phillies would tack on another run in the eighth after Bohm won a ten-pitch battle with Huascar Brazoban that ended in a two-out RBI single. The Phillies bullpen picked up right where Walker left off and shut down the Marlins. In the ninth inning, Craig Kimbrel sat the Marlins down 1-2-3 to secure his 18th save of the season. Other Notes Luis Arraez notched his 16th three-hit game of the year, which leads MLBSlumping A.J. Puk worked a clean top of the sixth, which was the earliest inning he has pitched in all seasonLooking Ahead The Marlins look to bounce back Tuesday with Sandy Alcantara on the mound. He will face off against Ranger Suárez for the Phillies. First pitch is set for 6:40.

After getting swept in Baltimore, the Marlins came into St. Louis looking to get their first win after the All-Star break. However, this would not be their night. Nolan Arenado was determined to get the Cardinals the win and he helped push them past the Marlins in the series opener on Monday, 6-4. The Marlins used the long ball for half of their runs and it would start in the second when Bryan De La Cruz hit a no-doubt solo shot to left-center field for a 1-0 lead. The Marlins would then scrape across another run in the fifth with three consecutive two-out singles. The singles came from Nick Fortes, Dane Myers, and Luis Arraez. The Marlins fell behind 3-2 in the fifth, but Jesús Sánchez would tie the game with a solo shot, his 10th home run of the year. The Cardinals offense was led by Nolan Arenado, who racked up four RBIs on two hits. After a Dylan Carlson double in the third, Arenado lined a single to get him home, then in the fourth, Carlson was on third base with one out and Arenado would hit a sac fly to center field to score him. Dylan Floro came one strike away from ending the sixth inning while preserving the 3-3 tie, but he gave up a double to Nolan Gorman and Dylan Carlson would bring him in with a single. Paul Goldschmidt followed him with a single of his own. Arenado then stepped up and lined a double to center field scoring Carlson and Goldschmidt to put the Cardinals up 6-3. Floro has allowed 45 hits this season, nearly matching his total from 2022 (48). The Marlins were trailing by three runs entering the seventh inning, but they began to rally. It started with Dane Myers' second hit of the game—with this performance, he has now had multi-hit games in 6 of his first 10 career games. Soler then got plunked and Cooper followed him with a single that drove in Myers. Then with two outs, Bryan De La Cruz stepped up in the biggest spot of the game with the bases loaded. He worked a full count and hit a sharp ground ball to the shortstop to kill the Marlins rally and leave them trailing 6-4. De La Cruz had previously been a .435 hitter (10-for-23) in his career with the bases loaded. https://videopress.com/v/3giICOlW?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=trueThe Marlins would show even more fight in the ninth. They would get runners on the corners representing the potential tying runs, but Jordan Hicks got Jesús Sánchez to ground out to second to end the game. Jesús Luzardo was not his best as he would only pitch four innings, giving up five hits and two earned runs. After striking out eight in his last outing against the Cardinals, Luzardo only K'd two. For the first time since September 20th, 2021, he walked more batters than he struck out. His command was just not totally there, and he wasn't able to generate as many swings-and-misses as he usually does. Meanwhile, Miles Mikolas was able to give the Cardinals a solid outing all things considered. He threw six innings in which he gave up three runs, and he now ranks fourth in the majors in innings pitched (121.2 IP). The veteran right-hander only struck out three, but he was able to get the Marlins to hit into outs and let his defense work for him. Looking Ahead The Marlins take on the Cardinals again Tuesday at 7:45 EST and it will most likely be Edward Cabrera's return from the injured list. Cabrera last pitched for the Marlins on June 13 (right shoulder impingement). On the mound for the Cardinals is Jordan Montgomery, who last faced the Marlins as a member of the Yankees in 2021.